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Imagine if Hell were a sort of financial market. Demons trade soul futures, essentially betting on the future price of souls, which of course they consume for f

Imagine if Hell were a sort of financial market. Demons trade soul futures, essentially betting on the future price of souls, which of course they consume for food. Other demons (backed by investors) devise new schemes to tempt humans into mortal sin. Failure means the souls go to Heaven, not Hell. If the demons bringing in souls should somehow create a bubble with a grand new scheme that's guaranteed to bring many souls, but then fail, the soul futures market would crash with catastrophic results. You could make a hilarious book satirizing the mortgage crisis or the dot-com bubble this way. (Something like Good Omens, but financial.) I have all sorts of notes on how this could work, but no idea how to write a novel with them.

eli_gottlieb 13y ago
This sounds absolutely hysterical! I think your main character(s) should be demons who work for the Hell SEC, who are trying to fight their way through corruption and bureaucracy to stop the bubble before it's too late and a huge quantity of souls are lost to the vile clutches of God in Heaven.
- deleted 13y ago
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- capnrefsmmat 13y ago
  That sounds great. My problem is that I can't think of a good cause for a soul bubble in hell. It'd be good to tie it to some historical event, but what could I say was clearly a failed demonic soul investment scheme?
  - eli_gottlieb 13y ago
    Why would there be a soul bubble? Well maybe an outbreak of religious revivalism on Earth has restricted the supply of souls available for Hell's consumption. Oh, and some new processing method is making certain demons very rich and pumping too much capital into a market that's fundamentally supply-limited. This also lets you make jokes at the expense of religious revivalist movements ;-).
amirouche 13y ago
Is it possible to write this book and have also inner stories for each souls? You can take inspiration from the french Book «Empire des anges».
pfitzsimmons 13y ago
Funny enough a friend of a friend of mine actually wrote a book with a very similar theme - "Three Parts Dead" by Max Gladstone ( http://www.amazon.com/Three-Parts-Dead-Max-Gladstone/dp/B00D00VKYW http://www.amazon.com/Three-Parts-Dead-Max-Gladstone/dp/B00D... ) The book was inspired by the 2008 financial crisis, and features deities who make contracts for uses of their powers. It's a terrific book, and a very fresh concept. I highly recommend it, especially if you like world building.

eli_gottlieb 13y ago

This sounds absolutely hysterical! I think your main character(s) should be demons who work for the Hell SEC, who are trying to fight their way through corruption and bureaucracy to stop the bubble before it's too late and a huge quantity of souls are lost to the vile clutches of God in Heaven.

deleted 13y ago
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capnrefsmmat 13y ago
That sounds great. My problem is that I can't think of a good cause for a soul bubble in hell. It'd be good to tie it to some historical event, but what could I say was clearly a failed demonic soul investment scheme?
- eli_gottlieb 13y ago
  Why would there be a soul bubble? Well maybe an outbreak of religious revivalism on Earth has restricted the supply of souls available for Hell's consumption. Oh, and some new processing method is making certain demons very rich and pumping too much capital into a market that's fundamentally supply-limited. This also lets you make jokes at the expense of religious revivalist movements ;-).

amirouche 13y ago

Is it possible to write this book and have also inner stories for each souls? You can take inspiration from the french Book «Empire des anges».

pfitzsimmons 13y ago

Funny enough a friend of a friend of mine actually wrote a book with a very similar theme - "Three Parts Dead" by Max Gladstone ( http://www.amazon.com/Three-Parts-Dead-Max-Gladstone/dp/B00D00VKYW http://www.amazon.com/Three-Parts-Dead-Max-Gladstone/dp/B00D... ) The book was inspired by the 2008 financial crisis, and features deities who make contracts for uses of their powers. It's a terrific book, and a very fresh concept. I highly recommend it, especially if you like world building.